West Coast "Birds of a Feather" Gathering

The Business Network is grateful to Urban Mapping Inc. and CEO Ian White for hosting the next "Birds of a Feather" (BOF) meeting at Urban Mapping headquarters (26 O'Farrell Street, Suite 310, San Francisco) on Thursday September 20 from 6-9 PM. BOF meetings are informal gatherings at which Business Network members can interact with each other, share challenges and solutions to complex business problems, and get to know each other and each other's challenges more deeply. They are also an opportunity for members to introduce new employes from their own companies to the Network, as well as to invite representatives of non-member companies to get to know the Network. Hors d’oeuvres, beer, and wine will be served.

A short kickoff talk will be presented by Raissa D'Souza, SFI External Professor and Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, UC Davis. Raissa's research focuses on mathematical models of self-organization, phase transitions and the structure and function of networked systems. An important focus of her current research is mathematical techniques for integrating heterogenous but interdependent networks such as the power grid and the internet. This work has important implications for understanding critical infrastructure in all its ramifications. Raissa received a PhD in Statistical Physics from MIT in 1999, was a Postdoc at Bell Labs and then a Postdoc in the Theory Group at Microsoft Research. Her research and publications span the fields of statistical physics, theoretical computer science and applied math. When she's not pursuing research ideas, you will typically find her outside either scaling rocks or sailing.